The world’s machines are coming online fast, and they’re generating a gargantuan amount of data. Those trillions of ones and zeros have value. Consider what happens when an jet engine is connected to the Internet: sensors record its spinning turbine parts, and the resulting data allows operators to make better maintenance decisions, in real time. Increased efficiency means lower costs. But without algorithms and predictive models that funnel the flood of raw data into a stream of actionable information, the value is left up in the clouds.

Data science is what makes the Industrial Internet—the emerging network of machines from jet engines to steam turbines to smart appliances—so valuable. Top leaders in the field discuss its future - focusing on the increasing importance of data science in industry and challenging the next generation of data scientists to define future applications. Joining GE’s data science leader Anil Varma: Anthony Goldbloom, Founder and CEO of Kaggle, an online platform that hosts data competitions; Hilary Mason, Chief Data Scientist at URL-shortening service bitly; Annika Jimenez, Global Head of Data Science Services at IT company Pivotal; and Dr. Andreas Weigend, from Stanford and UC-Berkeley’s joint Social Data Lab.